


Fernweh

by Magniloquence



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Parental Roy Mustang
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:49:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25251901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magniloquence/pseuds/Magniloquence
Summary: The first time Ed kisses Ling it’s on impulse.It all happens, because a couple of years after the Promise Day, Ed gets a little bit too drunk at a bar.It’s a really long fucking story.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Ling Yao
Comments: 3
Kudos: 73





	Fernweh

1921.

…

The first time Ed kisses Ling it’s on impulse.

It all happens, because a couple of years after the Promise Day, Ed gets a little bit too drunk at a bar.

It’s a really long fucking story.

…

It’s late at night, or more like early morning, when Roy gets a call about Ed being in the hospital. He hangs up before the nurse can begin explaining. Practically runs to his car.

After Ed quit the military, he didn’t see him quite as often, but they remained in each other’s periphery. He’s a little aggravated that he didn’t even know Ed was visiting Central.  
Little punk could at least stop by and say hello. He doesn’t keep a tab on the Elric brothers the way that he used to, there’s no need for that anymore. It’s thanks to Winry regularly visiting the Hughes that he gets to see Ed at all, since Riza and Winry are clever enough to coordinate combined visits. Ed would never admit that he’s glad to see him, but Roy can always tell. 

From the last time they all saw each other he knows that Alphonse is in Xing with Mei, and Winry is back in Resembool visiting her grandmother. Which is likely why he’s been contacted instead of Winry or Al. 

As he gets into his car, he wonders, not for the first time, but for the first time in a while, what the hell kind of trouble Ed has gotten himself into.

…

As he approaches Ed’s room at he hospital, he halts because Emperor Ling Yao of Xing, Leader of the Yao Clan, Heavenly Uniter of All Clans, Long May He Motherfucking Reign, is crouching in the hall. Roy’s pretty goddamn baffled to see him, since, as Führer of Amestris, he usually knows when other world leaders are visiting.

Confused (and suspicious) he asks, “Ling Yao?”

Ling perks up.

“Oh, Colonel Mustang! You made it. I’m so glad. I thought I was going to have to ask Lan Fan for help, and she’s still mad at me for leaving Xing without telling her.”

“What exactly are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Xing?”

“Eh. I just wanted to celebrate my birthday with some friends! Then Ed went and… uh.”

“And what?”

Ling explains that, to be fair, they were having a great time, but then maybe Ed got a little bit too drunk, and maybe started arguing with some random guys about Ishval, and maybe the arguing escalated into fighting, and maybe he got stabbed (just a little). But! He’s going to be okay according to the doctors.

Roy absorbs this information.

He breathes in and out slowly, runs a hand over his face and through his hair in frustration.

Why or how the Emperor of Xing managed to slip away from his responsibilities, just to get drunk with his best friend in Amestris is completely lost on Roy. He’s baffled, he’s beyond baffled. And he’s pissed.

“You’re telling me you took Fullmetal to a bar, got him drunk, instigated a fight between he and another patron, got him stabbed, and now you’re just making me responsible for him?”

Ling is indignant when he replies, “Look, I didn’t take him out just to get stabbed! The stabbing was very unplanned!”

“Unplanned?!”

“Yes, unplanned, unscheduled—and I had to practically drag him here! You know exactly how stubborn he is! I asked them to call you because I thought he might listen to you more since you’re… you know, kind of his dad or whatever.”

Roy mulls over this information. 

He’s not quite old enough to be Ed’s father, he insists to himself, but he knows that he’s played a more paternal role in the younger man’s life than his own ever did. He knows that Ed looks up to him, despite himself, in a way that he’s not ever looked up to other male authority figures. His face burns though, at having Ling-fucking-Yao be the one to say it so bluntly. He’s… touched? Astonished? Infuriated? There’s a lot of feelings to parse through on his end.

“Just! Just stay put while I go and talk to him, okay? I think he might want to see you before we leave.”

Ling just nods.

...

After signing some paperwork for Ed to be discharged, talking with the doctor about Ed’s injuries and recovery, he walks into Ed making some poor nurse’s life hell. She stands in front of Ed, arms outstretched as if trying to barricade him, trying in vain to reason with him. 

“Stupid fucking Anti-Ishvalan bastards. Goddamn fucking racists.”

“Sir, um. I’m going to have to ask you not to get out of bed. We haven’t brought by a wheelchair yet!”

“I’m going to have to ask you not to tell me what to do. This isn’t my first time getting stabbed. I’m good to go, he barely grazed me.”

“You’ve got nineteen stiches, sir!”

“And, I’ve had stiches before—”

“—Fullmetal!”

At his old title Ed jumps.

“Mustang? What the hell are you doing here?”

The nurse steps aside as Roy steps closer. “I’m here because Ling Yao asked for them to call me. A bar fight? Really Ed?”

“You came all the way down here just to lecture me?”

Roy ignores Ed in place of talking to the poor nurse, who now looks even more harried than before, “Sorry about him, ma’am. I’ve spoken with your lovely staff and he’s ready to be discharged. I’m here to take him home.”

She gives a nervous smile. Roy can see the relief in her face.

“Okay! I’ll just go get the wheelchair for Mr. Elric.”

“I don’t need a chair! Just get me a crutch,” Ed calls after her as she leaves the room in a hurry.

Once she’s gone, he turns his attention to Ed. He looks no worse for wear than Ling, exhausted, but other than that just the same as the last time Roy saw him a few months earlier. “To answer your earlier question, Ed.” He must look pretty angry right now because Ed actually looks kind of concerned. 

“I came down here because I was worried! What the hell exactly were you thinking?” 

“I was thinking, ‘Oh, fuck, this guy has a knife,’ and then, ‘Ow! Shit! I just got stabbed.’”

“Which wouldn’t have happened if you would have controlled yourself!” 

“Go to hell, bastard! You weren’t there, you didn’t here the kind of horrible shit they were saying. They deserved to be taught a lesson.”

Roy sighs. Anger dissipating. 

“Fullmetal,” He says, willing his voice to stay low and level, “I just think you should be more careful. How do you think Alphonse will feel, or Winry, for that matter, when they find out this happened? Even Ling looks like death, do you realize that? You worry all of us when you do these things.”

Roy’s anticipating a litany of explanations over why it’s not Roy’s place to smother him, but none come. Instead, Ed is looking intently at him. They stare at each for a moment, before Ed’s cheeks suddenly redden (in what? anger? embarrassment?) and his eyes widen. He swiftly drops his head. Ed’s voice is quiet when he speaks, and uncharacteristically  
apologetic, “I um… I guess you’re right, ‘m sorry.”

Huh. Roy had been expecting Ed to go on the defensive, what a day of surprises. 

“I’m impressed, Fullmetal,” Roy says to Ed’s back as he turns to fetch Ed’s clothes, sitting on a table nearby.

Ed looks up at him as he approaches him and hands him his clothes, “…By?”

“You seem to have actually grown up a little while I wasn’t looking.”

Ed cycles through bafflement, then outrage, before settling on smugness.

“Yeah, well. I try. Maybe someday you could become as mature as I am.”

Roy resists the urge roll his eyes, “I said a little.” 

“Is that supposed to a short joke? Those don’t really work on me anymore.”

“So you say, yet you still have a complex.”

“Whatever, Mustang. Just get out of here so I can change.”

Roy turns to leave but thinks better of it when he hears Ed wince.

“You just got stabbed in the stomach. Here, let me help.”

“I’ve got it.”

“Edward, don’t be so stubborn.”

“I said I’ve got it!”

Moving into Ed’s space, ignoring his protests, Roy helps him stand by pulling Ed up and toward him. He places one hand on Ed’s shoulder, and the other on the small of his back, holding him in place.

“There, steady. You’re still too proud to ask for help when you need it. That hasn’t changed,” Roy jokes. 

“Shut up, Mustang.” 

Roy looks to see Ed’s expression, and is surprised at the blush blooming on Ed’s cheeks, even more fiercely than before. He’d never been shy about personal space before, so why?—

There’s a bruise, purple-red and loud somehow, on his neck.

Roy’s brain stutters for a moment, and then he thinks back to Ling’s expression, mournful and worried, and nervous and… He feels an unexpected, overwhelming surge of protectiveness, almost irrational in its ferociousness. 

“Edward. Is that a hi—?”

Ed shoves him and sits back on the bed.

“I’ll have the nurse help me when she gets back.”

“Ed!”

“Just get out of here! Wait for me outside.”

Suspicious, but unwilling to push the issue, Roy leaves. In the hallway, Ling is nowhere to be found. He wonders what is taking the nurse so long to find a wheelchair.

…

As soon as they’ve got Ed in a wheelchair, Roy wheeling him out of the room, Ling is in front of them, crouching in front of Edward so that they’re eye-level.

“Ed! I’m so, so sorry. Are you okay? I mean, of course you’re not okay. Are you okayish? I’m so, so sorry, Ed.”

Ling is holding Ed’s hand in his own two hands, and looking at him so fondly and worried that Roy almost feels a little bit bad for him, almost. Ed gets that adorable embarrassed expression on his face that makes Roy want to shrink him and put him in his pocket and shield him from the world and—what the ever-loving fuck is Roy thinking?

That unreasonable sense of protectiveness comes back full force, and he’s glaring at Ling like Ling is responsible for everything that has ever been wrong or will be wrong in the world.

Ling looks a little bit intimidated, a bit nervous if the sweat drop on his forehead is anything to go by, but he doesn’t move from his position in front of Edward.

“Where are you going to be staying?”

“I’m—”

“Obviously I’m taking him home, to take care of him.”

“What the hell? Just drop me off at the hotel!”

“Absolutely not.”

“What? Why?!”

“I don’t know how many times I’ll have to reiterate this, but you are injured, Ed. I’m taking you back to my place.”

“Uh. What about Lieutenant Hawkeye? Did you even ask her first?”

“She’s actually visiting family with Rebecca.”

“Oh. Um. Okay, I guess.”

Ling looks determined, and a little bit… annoyed? Roy could smite him.

“I’ll be visiting tomorrow morning then.”

He’s not asking for permission; he’s just announcing his intentions. It pisses Roy off like no other. Who the hell does this kid think he is? Emperor or not, that’s quite presumptuous.

“Okay, um. Colonel, can you give him your address? I don’t actually remember it.”

Roy just wants to get Ed home and in bed (he feels exhausted too), so he recites his address curtly, without any intention of repeating himself if Ling didn’t catch everything the first time.

“Are we done here?” He asks.

Ling nods.

And so, after all of the shenanigans, Roy is able to take Fullmetal home.


End file.
